Warriors / Nets Open Thread

The Warriors’ win against the Rockets on Thursday was thrilling and encouraging, but they’ve risen to the occasion before against good teams on national TV. It’s games like this one — against the Nets — that the Warriors need to prove they can handle without costly dips in focus and intensity. The battle to make the playoffs in the West continues to be relentless. The ninth place team, Memphis, has won 4 straight. Dallas is 7-3 over it’s last 10. Phoenix remains hot as ever, knocking off the Spurs without difficulty on Friday night. If the Warriors are going to hang with this crowd, let alone pull ahead of them, they need to prove that they can dispatch dangerous but ultimately inferior teams on their home court. They weren’t getting it done before the All Star break. This is the perfect opportunity to show how things have changed.

At 17-10, the Warriors have the worst home record of any of the West teams currently in the playoffs. After years of being very tough at home, it’s odd to see them fall off the pace. There’s no excuse for the slow first quarters, particularly with the friendly crowd at their back waiting to fuel their surges. The Nets are a veteran team that knows how to exploit mistakes. They’ll provide a good test for the Warriors, forcing them to tie up the loose ends of their offense and defense.

As always, drop your thoughts below.

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Adam Lauridsen

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Of the next 5 games, only Celtics are in tank mode. (Knicks may be tanking without realizing that they don’t have next year’s pick, that is another story). I am really looking forward to Indiana game to take our #completeteam and avenge defeat earlier in the season which Adam has put as Not Yet as in dubs not there yet to win against the elite teams. But first, let us get that 5th win in a row tomorrow and stay undefeated post all star.

willow

Touche’.

willow

On the post game rundown they highlighted his stats for the last three games. Interestingly, it showed 0, 3 and 3 blocks, respectively, for the last three games. I guess somebody in the stat room must have missed that block on Parsons during the Houston game?

Camelot

#freeJimmer in progress…

Fantom

new post up

sartre

And I hope you develop a little humility

sartre

Re the potential risks of the lineup, I’ve previously acknowledged them but offered potential counter arguments. I’ve also never said that it would be the best lineup against every match-up. Nothing you say conveys any knowledge of basketball that goes beyond what I’ve long since figured out myself about the game. The difference between us is that I do not rigidly hold to a given position but am prepared to test my observational hypotheses against other sources of evidence in the form of potentially relevant stats.

coltraning

agreed…I searched only as far back as 2001, but it had never happened back that far…usually 4-5 teams a conference have winning road records. Interestingly, the 2007-08 Ws were 21-20. The reason they missed the playoffs, was the worst home record of any winning team…

coltraning

agreed. 19-11 Steph helps the team more than 24-8 Steph, imho, if for no other reason than the constant doubling of him creates so many wide open looks. Their record of 15-1 when he scores 19 or < backs that up pretty definitively. As great a shooter as he is, I'd rather have an average to good shooter take a wide open look than Steph take a highly contested 3…

coltraning

agreed…I like Toronto, but they would likely be behind Minny…MAN, they need to change the way they seed the playoffs…

coltraning

Watching Chicago’s offense is as painful as it was to watch Van Gundy’s with Houston…hey coach, there are TWO sides to basketball, and even if you hold the opposition to 80 points, you still need to score 81…

Tired

Using AI that way is OK once in a while. he isn’t a point guard though, and he is more valuable doing what he does best. We had a enough of it to see that it wasn’t what we needed. Now we can do it without depending on it. Big difference. No more speculation. No more ifs ands or buts.

Tired

Always get a kick out of people who are concerned about “Jimmer.”

lol

Tired

Using certain players for certain situations or teams does not mean you aren’t elite. or are you kidding?

Tired

Detroit was very hot in the first half. We didn’t help, but they cooled off in the second half. I would bet the net result was about average for them.

Tired

Spot on.

Eric Eiserloh

Just added half a line at the end, inspired by your response.

Cheers, e

Eric Eiserloh

I’m just playing, Sartre. No offense intended. In fact, what I just said was meant as a compliment and a sincere wish for your well being, among other things.

Eric Eiserloh

Cool.

I can get defensively offensive when I sense that my views are being misrepresented (ie. that I’m burying my head in the sand along with the stats), or that things I am pointing out are not really being considered or acknowledged.

Chris L

Terrific post above, Tired. Yes, the trying to get away without a proven backup PG was a failed experiment (and one Jackson failed at as well, given that he didn’t do everything he could’ve to try to get it to really work).

But, like you suggest, it never needed to have been tried. There’s no damn good reason at all for not having a proven backup PG on your bench.